Damp Power, how to counter it...
- Thread starter balam_br
- Start date
wildstarsreach
First Post
balam_br said:
This power is powerful and you might go with utilizing grappling the character with attackers. I plan to take it with my psiforged at 3rd level and see how it plays out since it does look great on paper.
People have said to use sudden maximize or maximize spells. This could kill the party with excessive use just to challange one character.
Upon reflection, with these types of damage, fire/cold/electrical/acid/sonic, the character becomes almost immune to unfeated spells.
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wildstarsreach said:
Damp Power looks better on paper than it is in reality when compared to Intellect Fortress.
Damp Power is real effective against one spell or power per round. But, that's the problem with it. One per round. Intellect Fortress can protect against multiple spells or powers.
For example: 10D6 Fireball averages 35 points of damage
A Psion with Intellect Fortress takes 17 or 8.
A Psion with Damp Power takes 10 or 5.
So yes, if only one 10th caster level spell is thrown at the Psion, then he takes 3 or 7 average points less of damage with Damp Power than with Intellect Fortress in this case. But, if a second spell is thrown, he takes 5 to 10 more, and if a third one is thrown he takes 13 to 27 more, etc.
Plus, if a Psion uses this in a given round, he cannot use any other swift or immediate action. This is also true for round one of Intellect Fortress, but not for other rounds (and most Psions will probably put more than 7 PP into Intellect Fortress, just to get the multi-round protection).
Plus, Intellect Fortress protects against spells and powers that do not do variable damage, so Maximize does not negate it. And, Intellect Fortress protects against ability damage, even if it is not a variable numeric effect. And, Intellect Fortress will work in a Lesser Globe of Invulnerability (but not a normal one). And, for Warforged Psions like my future one in our next campaign, Intellect Fortress protects against Disable Construct. Damp Power does not.
Damp Power, on the other hand, will work against Orb spells, Intellect Fortress will not. And, Damp Power can be used at 3rd level and only costs 3 PP for the Psion Only protection. And, Damp Power can protect against spells and powers which do not do damage, but have other variable numeric effects.
So sure, Damp Power is a good defense against certain attacks. But, Intellect Fortress is typically better overall. Given a choice between the two, I would take Intellect Fortress for two reasons: I can put it up for more than one round cheaply, and I can have the protection and still use swift or immediate actions in latter rounds. For a Psion, swift and especially immediate actions are important.
Course, this is only true in a transparent Psionic / Magic campaign.
Note: Intellect Fortress can have the downside of protecting the Psions enemies as well, but that is dependent on situation and how tactically well one plays the Psion.
wildstarsreach
First Post
KarinsDad said:
After 11th level, with use of Temporal Accerleration, Damp Power, Energy Adaptation and Intellect fortress extended would be an effective layered defense. Time consuming but attainable.
wildstarsreach said:
Damp Power, though, is not very helpful here. The moment you use Temporal Acceleration is the moment that Damp Power cannot effectively be used until the next round.
And, Damp Power still takes an immediate action on that following and subsequent rounds. Immediate and swift actions are really more useful for Quickened Powers, Elan special abilities, and a series of other powers (e.g. Divert Teleport, Fate of One, Mental Barrier, Burst, Huste, Temporal Acceleration, etc.). Every time you use Damp Power before your turn to protect yourself is a round that you cannot use any other swift or immediate action on (or in the case of immedate actions before) your turn.
If you can get away with a similar ability that has a duration as opposed to one that takes a swift or immediate action, the duration one is typically better to take, even though it might be less useful in some circumstances.
Damp Power is a fine power for a 3rd level psion to take. But, at 7th (or slightly higher) level, it is a good idea to take Intellect Fortress and Psychic Reformation, and use Psychic Reformation to swap Damp Power out for something with more utility. Either that or never take Damp Power in the first place.
Btw, taking Share Pain, Vigor, and a Psicrystal works nearly as well as Intellect Fortress at lower level. You manifest Share Pain on your Psicrystal and share power Vigor and when you get hit for damage, half goes to your Vigor and the other half goes to the Psicrystal's Vigor. So for many Psions (i.e. ones with Psicrystals), there really is no reason to take the Damp Power path since most Psions take Vigor.
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